Hey guys! Sorry this is a bit late. Remember how I said, that I wanted to finish this story before the House of Hades comes out? [What's up with those spoilers? They are driving me insane!] Well, I have eight days and four chapters left. That means, a new chapter every two days! Fun, right? Don't worry, I'll stick to my schedule. Hopefully.

Review time!

Darkynstars: You are too sweet. Seriously. I want to cry and hug a pillow right now. Your comment just made my day. Or year. Or life. :P

Vans321: Update soon? Ha! You came to the worst updater out there, but here is the update. Just for you. :D

Minecraftluver: So I'm not really good with reading emotions. Is '0_0' a good thing, or a bad thing?

August1999: Yeah, I love parallelism. I just figured that Reyna and Hylla must speak Spanish... and Leo spoke Spanish... my mind just decided to do it.

Guest: Thank you! Yeah, I wanted to make this story as realistic as possible. I hope the rape wasn't too much for you guys, but I figured that it would have happened.

Enjoy!

Chapter Ten

The woman stared at her father sadly, unsure of what to say. Her mother was a strong person, she always knew that. But nothing could have prepared her for this sad truth. How many times had her mother pushed her harder and harder when she had begun to learn hand combat? The same thing had happened in school, in camp, everywhere. The woman remembered how she would complain to her father, but he would just smile and tell her to suck it up.

Now she knew why. Her mother wanted her to be able to defend herself. She didn't want her daughter to feel helpless like she had.

"By that time, I knew that I had fallen for her, Mija." Her father's soft voice startled the woman out of her thoughts. She had forgotten for a moment that he was telling her a story. "I always did fall for girls who were way out of my league. It had happened before. She was Praetor, she was beautiful."

He sighed happily, "But Mija, that's when I knew that I truly loved her. For the first time in my life, I felt like… I needed to protect somebody."

The woman noticed her father clenching his fists. She laid her hand on his shoulder, an attempt to soothe him. Her father wasn't the type of man to get angry, but when he did, his wrath was worse than anything her mother could have. The old man took a deep breath and covered his face with his hands.

"So, what happened?" The woman asked, hoping to move her father out of these dark thoughts. "Did they find you?"

"Yeah. They found us, the next morning of course. Jason, that knuckle-head, finally figured out that the guy, whose freaking apartment was on fire, wasn't there!" Leo grimaced at the memory. "By that time, Reyna had gotten into such a state. After she had told me the story, she couldn't stop shivering. She managed to go to sleep. But only after several hours. I fell asleep too, just because I was exhausted and I had no coffee.

"I remember, being fast asleep. It was the first time I had a dream since the war. But it had nothing to do with being a demigod. It was just a dream about Reyna crying. No…it was a freaking nightmare. Reyna wasn't meant to cry. It was unnatural." He shook his head, as if hoping that he could shake the memories out with them.

" Jason and Frank ended up finding us. It was a good thing Frank was with him, otherwise, the shelf would have been impossible to move. I don't even know what he turned to. I could have sworn it was a rhino, but I never figured out.

When they finally opened the supply closet, I remember Jason shaking me. I was a bit disoriented, I mean, you don't just wake somebody up like that, you know?

I realized that behind Jason, Frank was trying not to smile. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, thinking that I drooled. Which I did of course, but then Jason said, 'I see the two of you got comfortable down here.'

I looked down and realized that Reyna had fallen asleep on my shoulder and was still hugging my arm. It looked bad, obviously. I was kind of… well I don't know…especially since nothing had really happened between us. So I said, 'Dude, I wish' and I woke her up.

So, shaking someone awake isn't the best method to wake anyone up. Especially Reyna. She literally smacked me upside the head and threw a dagger to my throat before even opening her eyes. That girl, damn, she was a beast! I didn't say anything. What do you say to someone who just told you their deepest secret? I wasn't even sure if Jason knew about it or not, considering that they had been Praetors together for a while.

'Leo?' She had sputtered. She looked around wildly before noticing Jason and Frank in the room. Then she looked at me and suddenly her face became red. Extremely red. She stood up and sheathed her sword before running out of the room. I didn't even get to say anything. I remember thinking to myself, 'There it is Leo. She's embarrassed of you. Why would the Praetor actually want to be with a mechanic?'" The woman blinked for a moment, trying to process what her father had just said. She hadn't pegged him for someone who would indulge in self-pity. He tended to boast his achievements and act smug, although jokingly.

"Yeah… I was an idiot back then." The father said, noticing his daughter's expression. "Let me finish, you'll understand eventually. Anyway, where was I? Right. I was wallowing in grief after Reyna had walked out on me and I was alone with Jason and Frank. After a couple of minutes, Jason had asked me, 'Ummm… do I want to know?'

I said, 'I don't even think that I know.' I don't remember much after that. Just that they had taken me to Frank's apartment. Jason and Piper didn't have any room for me in their apartment, so I had to stay with Frank until my new location was figured out.

I didn't mind really. Frank wasn't so bad, neither was his apartment. I just didn't understand one thing. Why was Reyna embarrassed of me?" The old man leaned back into the couch, looking over at his daughter. The woman saw the sadness in those large brown eyes. He continued, "I mean, that woman. Seriously. And people think men are the clueless ones… I loved her.

Couldn't she see that I would have fought a million pirates, just to keep her safe?"